Category: News Updates

China was at its wits end after the U.S. President Donald Trump said in his tweets that he is very disappointed with China regarding North Korea’s latest missile check. According to the united states President Donald Trump, it might be an easy activity for China to do. China has grown to be an increasing number of pissed off with American and Japanese grievance that it ought to do greater to rein in Pyongyang. China is North Korea’s closest best friend, but Beijing, too, is irritated with its endured nuclear and missile tests. North Korea currently said it had carried out some other a hit check of an intercontinental ballistic missile that proved its ability to strike the U.S. mainland, drawing a pointy warning from Trump and a rebuke from China. Video of the latest missile takes a look at appears to expose it breaking apart earlier than the touchdown, indicating Pyongyang may not yet have mastered the re-access technology needed for an operational nuclear-tipped missile. The Chinese ambassador, in criticisms aimed at the USA, stated implementation of Security Council resolutions is likewise being hampered by way of unilateral sanctions and “preconditions put to beginning the communicate” with Pyongyang. China additionally lashed out at the U.S. accusations, pronouncing that Washington and Pyongyang maintain “the number one obligation” for cutting-edge escalating tensions, in addition to for efforts to chill tensions. A White residence announcement after the telephone call said the 2 leaders agreed that North Korea poses a grave and growing direct chance to the US, Japan, the Republic of Korea, and different nations near and ways. The Trump administration has been pursuing a strategy of pressuring Pyongyang via new unilateral sanctions and attractive to China to use its have an impact on even as putting forward that every one option, together with a targeted navy strike, are at the table to block North Korea from carrying out threats towards the USA and its allies in the area. China has proposed that each side goes into reverse from their present day course towards navy disagreement, with North Korea refraining from any similar missile or nuclear exams, and the US refraining from further military exercises or deployments inside the location.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe spoke with Trump and agreed on the need for greater action on North Korea just hours after the U.S. Ambassador to the United countries stated Washington is finished speaking about North Korea. It stated Trump “reaffirmed our ironclad commitment” to protect Japan and South Korea from any attack, “the usage of the full variety of USA skills”. Trump tweeted on Saturday after the missile test that he changed into “very disenchanted” in China and that Beijing income from U.S. trade but had completed “not anything” for the united states with regards to North Korea, something he would now not allow to preserve. Whilst a reporter asked the united states, President Donald Trump, what could he do approximately it, Trump said on the begin of a cupboard meeting that the US will deal with North Korea and that it’ll be dealt with. China’s overseas Ministry stated the North Korean nuclear difficulty did now not arise due to China and that everybody had to paintings collectively to are trying to find a resolution. But, Russia is clamoring that the US is best transferring the duty and the blame to Russia and China regarding North Korea’s missile assessments.

At the United international locations in New York, China’s U.N. ambassador stated that it’s miles in general up to the united states and North Korea, not Beijing, to lessen tensions and work towards resuming talks to cease Pyongyang’s nuclear weapon and missile programs. America and North Korea hold the primary obligation to keep things transferring, to begin moving in the proper path, no longer China. No matter how successful China is, China’s efforts will no longer yield sensible effects as it depends on the 2 main parties. It could also because of the Rape of Nanking incident. Speculations are that North Korea nuclear issue and China-U.S. alternate are problems which might be in two completely one of a kind domain. They aren’t related. They should not be discussed collectively. North Korea has stated previously that the UN resolutions on unilateral US sanctions are unnecessary and unhelpful.

In the world of bodybuilding, it is very important to find the quick and effective results to gain the muscular and ripped body. When it comes to find the best results of bodybuilding, our body hormones plays an important role in it. There are many people who are facing the problem of low hormone levels in body. They need to boost the hormones in body to achieve the goal of bodybuilding. If you are also looking to get this goal of bodybuilding, there are two ways of it. You can find best help with the hormone replacement therapy or you can use the hormone boosting supplements for it. If you are also looking for best supplement for hormone growth in body, you can use the Genotropin Lyophilized Powderas a good option.

This is a perfect option that you can use the hormone growth supplements to gain your bodybuilding goals. These supplements like Lyophilized Powder will help you in following ways to gain your bodybuilding goals:

Boosting of hormone level in your body:

When it comes to gain the muscle building goals, you will need growth hormones in your body for it. If you have low level of these hormones in your body, you can find help to boost the hormone level in your body. If you are looking to boost these hormones in your body, you can use the Lyophilized Powder as good option. This is not like other illegal steroids that can cause side effects on your body. You will find best benefits of this supplement in hormone boosting.

Fat loss and muscle growth:

To make a muscular body, you need to perform two things. First, you have to cut extra fat from your body and then you need to grow the size of your muscles. Lyophilized Powder can be used to achieve both goals. You can easily get help to cut extra fat from your body and then you will find best benefits ofGenotropin Lyophilized Powder in muscle growth. In this supplement, you will find amino acid that is helpful in muscle recovery as well as muscle goal. These growth hormone supplements are perfect option for people who want to get lean muscle mass quickly.

Improved strength and stamina:

If you want to get lean muscle mass, you have to perform hard workouts and need strength for it. If you are using the growth hormone supplements like Lyophilized Powder, it will help you to improve the strength and stamina. You can easily find the complete strength and stamina to perform all heavy exercises and workouts.

So the Lyophilized Powder can be used to find your goal of bodybuilding. This is a legal hormone growth supplement that you can buy at online stores. Some people use the illegal and injected steroids that can cause various side effects on your body. If you want to get help to grow you body and muscles, you will can use these legal supplements and can easily order for best HGH supplements from online stores.

To complete a work properly it is needed that almost all the sectors of a company to work hand in hand to increase the production of any goods that is under the production or the manufacturing of them reach such a level so that it brings in good amount of profit for the organization. The Scrum is one of the latest software which is implemented in the production of goods. What is needed is the full support of all the segments from the production house right from the workers to the owner of the company
It might be strange but true:

The Scrum is such a technology which helps in the production of the company, using the software which has a well chalked out plan which is used to give the premium kind of goods which can pass any quality control test and emerge as a winner. The technology helps the entire worker to work in harmony since no company can be successful if there is discordant relation among them. If they go wrong somewhere, though the chance is absolutely low, with the help of the supervisor or the team leaders to put a check the fallacy in the production.

With the Leading Safe Training in Ottawa they are much more confident in doing what they are asked to and putting the best effort so that the company gets to see a huge profit at the end of the day. The stakeholders are the one who have invested money on the company feel happy to see the profit the company is running through. It might so happen that they are ready to invest more on the company.

What are the changes in the marketing of the company?

The company with a good teamwork uses the traditional as well as the modern Scrum technology and gives the products a better finish. The workers lend out the expertise to help the company to become a leader. It is made sure there are no backlogs left which means that the correct delivery time by the company. This makes the end-users happy and this can even bring in more profit for the company. It opens a new avenue of marketing strategy which the company sets after they get enough confidence to take to take orders which needs better and bigger order from the company.

The Leading Safe Certification is that which helps in the rise of production which helps the company to come up with flawless and quality product when the supervisors along with the team leaders to work equally hard as the workers to bring out the best which makes the company proud and as a result the company even can think of calling for more investors who are ready to take the company to a higher platform and giving the responsibility to the hefty orders and this can happen from any other clients also. So the technological advancement becomes a boon for a company where they can earn in billions to give the best and quality goods.

Doctor prescribes the artificial form of hormones to someone with the deficiency of a particular hormone. But now-a-days even gym trainer are advising it to professionals as well as beginners. The ideas for this therapy probably originated from very early job suggesting that shots of the hormone in healthy individuals prompted an increase in lean muscle, increased stamina and a vibrant, energised expectation. Experience among bodybuilders and a professional athlete has recommended that regular use of the hormone does cause these physical changes. You should also study about the concept of non-glycosylated polypeptide chain.

It also manages the metabolic process

Human growth hormone (HGH) is responsible for typical growth in youngsters and teenagers, but it likewise manages metabolic processes such as fat metabolism and carb metabolism. It’s no crash that, as HGH levels start to reduce when we are fully expanded, we tend to experience a rise in fat storage space gone along with by a loss of muscle and toughness. Making use of growth hormone in muscle building is planned to apprehend or reverse these modifications, giving the professional athlete aside in the health club and in competitors. Lots of bodybuilders and various other professional athletes now receive human growth hormone injections due to benefits of non-glycosylated polypeptide chain.

Role of HGH in body building

Yet there are issues with making use of human growth hormone in muscle building that athletes must recognize. First, the hormone is banned by NCAA and WADA and various other sports organizations. A professional athlete evaluated for prohibited substances during competition would be charged with a doping infraction if artificial HGH was found in the blood (all HGH readily available for healing use is now synthetic).

Does use human growth hormone in muscle building truly function?

Although studies have revealeda rise in lean muscle and a reduction in body fat, it’s not clear that these physical adjustments offer a professional athlete any actual edge in bodybuilding or competitors. That raised muscle size might not correspond to enhanced strength over and above that attained with other training strategies. And human growth hormone shots bring with them a host of possible adverse effects that could heavily exceed any kind of potential advantage of the therapy.

Human growth hormone shots increase the HGH level in the blood above normal level for a prolonged amount of time. Though the idea is to bring levels back up to where they remained in young people, it may be a bad concept because the hormone does have effects on the body past increasing muscle and stopping fat storage space. Long term users of human growth hormone in bodybuilding risk of unpleasant negative effects such as high levels of fat in the blood, thyroid problems, heart problem, clinical depression, diabetic issues, and other points. Though small damage can be reversed by stopping the hormone treatment, some physical modifications are long-term.

Finally, human growth hormone shots are prohibitively pricey and phony products are common. The hormone has to be infused and kept an eye on by a professional with clinical know-how, usually on a day-to-day schedule, however at least numerous times weekly. The price will go to thousands of dollars a month for comprehensive therapy. It’s ironic that it’s thought that few athletes using human growth hormone in muscle building, and various other sports training, experience the serious side effects discussed over because of the predominance of imitation HGH on the market today.

If you are in search of some certification course that helps you with polishing your skills and at the same time opens up new career opportunities for you then you must think about scaled agile frameworks. Though the course is promising for all but executives, manager, leaders, product managers and software developers all are in a profitable position from this course. After successful completion of the Leading Safe Course the aspirants get complete knowledge as to how to apply the techniques and tools of the agile and scrum to theirprojects and accomplish the targets of the company. Though there are many courses that are offered by SAFe certification but the course that depends on your interest and career field will be actually the course for you.

Overview

Agile that is adopted by companies across the globe is a popular methodology that stimulates the working process and focuseson giving the best results by dividing the project into smaller teams and then motivate team members to work upon them. A close check is kept on the working process and at every stage the progress is measured to ensure that the project completes according to the product owner’s choice and that too within the allotted time. To cherry pick the goodness of the course Scaled Agile Framework Certification in Chennai works best for all aspirants. The course that was introduced by the Dean Leffinwell is loaded with the following features.

Trouble-free implementation- Adopting the agile framework, SAFe (Scaled Agile Frame) is the most adopted way by the big companies. Usually what is done by senior managers these days is that, they pick up any course and start following it without knowing its harmful effect on the overall business. The training that is imparted online helps in grabbing every detailing about the concepts of the agile and scrum. This facilitates hassle free implementation of techniques and helping the company with a new concept of development.

Idea of release train- As the name suggests, the feature comprises of 50 to 125 employees that are allotted work with. They are assigned different work and asked tocompleteit accordingly. They join together to completethe project. The release train runs on a fixed path of time and not-to-mention with fine instructions from scrum masters.

Different types of certifications- Scaled Agile Framework Certification in Chennai offers various kinds of certification. You can choose according to your role in the SAFe team.

SAFe Agilist (SA) – This course provesbeneficial to the executives, managers, and agile agents so that they can execute their work by using the techniques of the named course.

SAFe Program Consultant Certification (SPC 4) – The course proves beneficial to the external consultants and agile agents. It facilitates the release of trains.

SAFe Product manager/ product owner (SPMPO) – The course stands for all those project managers, product owners, business analysts who target a better product development following the agile way.

SAFe Practitioner (SP) – This course is for software developers, project managers, and product managers. The training help hem adopts the agile frameworks and apply it on the team and projects.

SAFe Program Consultant Trainer 4.0 (SPCT4) – The course is just apt for SAFe program consultant who wants to make career in this field by training other students.

DevOps, an amalgamation of development and operations came into scene in 2009 and it is an approach that brings the two of the most important aspects of a project, i.e. development and operations together on one board. Through DevOps, you develop a software, do all that it takes to manage the project operations and then deploy it conveniently. Basically, it is a methodology of developing software where you pay equal attention to the different aspects of a project between the two teams; one that takes care of development and the other that cares of everything related to IT operations.

To explain in the easiest words, it is a tool to collaborate people working on a project. These people may have different roles and responsibilities but the DevOps platform brings every one of these together. One of the most important approaches used here in DevOps is Agile. Apart from these, it is developed in such a way that the concepts of some great programs like system thinking are also inculcated here. What basically has been done in this process was to create one framework that had something from all the other prominent options.

Due to the way DevOps is designed, there are a lot of advantages that you will experience if you bring this into use as a developer. Apart from just keeping the basics about your responsibilities clear, this will also help you in understanding what other members are doing and how you can contribute in improving the overall progress and status of the project.

Apart from being a transparent approach to handle things and create a bridge between two departments, another factor that makes it special is the financial advantages. Since there would be a lot of clarity between teams, the work will be done in a better manner. Also, the time which is otherwise wasted in coordination could also be saved considerably. This would lead to the goals getting accomplished in a faster way and thus saving the overall project cost.

As discussed above, the roles of what needs to be done by which member of the team and how it is going to affect the future of the project will be clear, people would work with set goals in front of them and thus improve their overall productivity. The process of learning and implementing the concepts of DevOps is very easy and therefore, as a developer, you will not have to a lot of brainstorming if you want to become an expert with DevOps and start using it for enhancing your work and role.

Considering all these advantages, you should definitely take up a DevOps course if you plan not just to improve your skills but also to make a shift from a role specific work to something that allows you to have a bigger and better participation in the project.

Apple Pay and Android Pay may be best known as Apple and Google’s mobile wallets, designed to expand their businesses in making payments with smartphones. But today comes an advance that underscores how both are also vying to be consumers’ virtual wallets for all e-commerce transactions.

WePay, the payments company that competes against the likes of incumbents like FirstData and Global Payments, as well as younger tech companies like PayPal and Stripe, to help businesses take online payments — an example of one of its customers is the crowdfunding platform GoFundMe — today announced that it is expanding acceptance of both Apple Pay and Android Pay to the web.

The news comes as both Google and Apple are hoping to drive much more adoption and usage of their respective wallets across all platforms. In January, Apple CEO Tim Cook noted that Apple Pay transactions had grown 500% in the last year, with “billions” of dollars in transactions and user numbers tripling (one report from April 2016 noted Apple Pay had 12 million users).

Apple also said in January that some 2 million small businesses were already taking Apple Pay payments on the web and that it was gearing up to add larger companies like Comcast. This points to both how the company is touting its growth, but also the attention that it’s giving to growing Apple Pay specifically on the web.

For its part, Google hasn’t released recent Android Pay usage stats, but a recent survey from Boston Retail Partners notes that it comes in fourth behind Apple Pay, PayPal and Mastercard’s PayPass in terms of merchant acceptance in the U.S..

That is where WePay comes in: the startup works as a conduit to working with thousands of businesses online and millions of end users by acting as the processing back-end for companies like Constant Contact, FreshBooks, GoFundMe, Meetup and Zoho, in total processing billions of dollars in payments annually as well as providing compliance and risk-reduction services.

In other words, integrations like this one with WePay are essential for both Apple Pay and Android Pay to help them gain more critical mass for their wallets.

The startup — launched in 2010 and a 2009 alum of Y Combinator — was an early partner of Google’s for expanding its payment efforts beyond its direct services, and also worked early on with Apple Pay. But both of those were focused on making payments on the mobile web and within mobile apps.

While this was a step ahead, this was only part of the opportunity, because even though companies like PayPal have made a big point of talking about mobile commerce is blowing up, at the end of the day, it’s still around one-third (and often less for some companies) of what’s being paid for and processed via PCs and the non-mobile internet.

“I’m not too excited about in-app check-out for Apple Pay and Android Pay,” said Bill Clerico, the CEO and co-founder of WePay. “The use cases are not that common because, for example, you put your card number into Uber once and never have to use it again.”

The promise of wallets for consumers has up to now been that they provide a faster and more secure way to make e-commerce transactions, since you do not have to enter card or other payment information multiple times. The same goes for integrating wallets into WePay’s services, said Clerico.

“For small businesses, for example, they email their invoices to customers using invoicing platforms, but it results in a terrible experience when those invoices have to be paid. That is where something like Apple Pay is really powerful.” However, as with all of WePay’s services and integrations, its users have to turn on one feature or another via its API to enable it to appear: Apple Pay and Android Pay will not appear automatically or by default.

WePay has to date raised just over $74 million in funding from a long list of investors that includes PayPal co-founder Max Levchin and Maynard Webb, the ex-eBay exec who is now chairman of Yahoo and on the board of Visa.

Clerico acknowledges that for a fintech company out of San Francisco that has been around for 8 years, the amount it has raised is low. What’s also somewhat novel is that the company has no plans to raise more but is looking to expand beyond its current markets of the U.S., Canada and UK.

“We’re pretty capital efficient and were profitable when we raised our last round [$40 million in 2015],” he said. “We are not a high burn business and are running close to break even.” The company expects to cross 200 employees this month, he said.

Maritime shipping, the engine of global economic growth for much of the twentieth century, has stalled in the past few years.

The industry, which has high costs and is slow to adopt new technologies that could improve efficiency, is now facing a crisis of overcapacity and low demand, which is punishing shipping companies large and small.

Nowhere is this pain felt more intensely than in the bulk shipping market, which is in the midst of a multi-year downward spiral, according to predictions from most of the big banks.

A forecast showing a market that’s complex and cratering would dissuade most entrepreneurs from entering, but for Jenna Brown and Fabian Blaicher, the two founders of Shipamax, the bulk shipping industry’s pains could be their gain.

Brown and Blaicher both worked as commodities traders at the international trading firm RWE, before moving on to other pursuits.

It was at RWE that the two experienced the pain of bulk shippers firsthand. While the containerized shipping industry, which deals with the transport of everything from electronics to embroideries and everything in-between, has some fairly robust supply chain and logistics tools associated with it, bulk shipping for commodities is a much different story, says Brown.

A container ship

“When most people think about shipping, they think about containers – most people don’t know or think about the multi-billion dollar non-containerised shipping industry,” says Brown. “It’s complex to understand for outsiders – and as a result, there are relatively few modern tech software companies in this space.”

The new graduate from YCombinator’s latest batch of accelerated companies sits at the intersection of shipping requests and the start of a ship’s journey. The company claims to take all of the hassles out of decision-making, charting, and booking a big bulk ship.

This is wildly different from booking a cruise or even grabbing a spot for a container on a ship (also something startups are working on).

Most bulk shippers still rely on paper and pencil (or Excel spreadsheets among the most technologically savvy), Brown says.

In a down-cycle, where every bit of efficiency can help, Shipamax’s software means route optimization, easier booking, and better outcomes, the company says.

“Like many other industries, outside of their day jobs these people are consumers – they’ve tasted that beautiful, easy to use software they can use in their personal life and there is a huge gap between that and what they use at work. That’s frustrating,” says Brown.

Companies can receive anywhere from 4,000 to 15,000 requests for booking each day, and extracting information from those emails is time-consuming. Shipamax integrates with a company’s email and extracts relevant information to create automated booking requests.

While big software companies are servicing the freight market (including companies like Flexport, Haven, and FreightOS), Brown said that fewer people are moving into the bulk shipping market because of its different supply and demand dynamics (or it could just be that it’s a dying market).

Dying or not, the London-based Shipamax is seeing plenty of demand for its software. There are 20 shipping companies on the Shipamax waiting list, and a freemium version is already available for industry players to dip their toe in Shipamax’s tech-enabled scheduling waters.

Clenbuterol is a nootropic drug which is being used as a fat burner for almost 30 decades. It is a sympathomimetic amine because it mimics adrenaline and noradrenaline in the body. It functions to relax the smooth muscles. It was developed as a medicine against the pulmonary obstructive problems like asthma. Clen is a bronchodilator, it clears the air passage which aids in restoring normal breathing in the patients.

Earlier, its cousin Ephedrine was famous in the market for its weight loss functions but it was not very late when Clen became the favorite weight loss pill of many. It is a powerful thermogenic agent and also a performance enhancer. This makes it a covetable drug for the athletes. Clen is not a steroid, hence it cannot enhance muscle development in any way. But yes, it can help keep the muscles in place and eliminate the excess fats. Clenbuterol is therefore used in cycles in between the steroid. So that the user can keep from accumulating subcutaneous fats. Besides, Clen only causes lipolysis it does not affect the hard-earned muscles. More information regarding its use is available at ClenCycle.com. Users can even find reviews and go through the before and after pictures of several athletes before considering Clen treatment.

How safe is Clen for human use?

Clen does not pose any danger to the body as long as it is used according to the instructions. How it acts on the body depends totally on the discipline and the choice of the user. Though certain side-effects ranging from a mild headache to serious cardiovascular issues are reported, but these are caused only if the dose is overdone. It is also notable that the side-effects do not persist after the use is terminated but severe effects can sometimes take a toll on the health. Medical help should be sorted to put an end to the aftermath. Therefore, it is always advised that the user should stay away from the greed of achieving hastened results in order to forestall the dirty effects.

How to dose effectively with Clen?

At ClenCycle.com many athletes and bodybuilders have shared their dosage routine which can help a starter design his own. It is endorsed by many experienced users that the Clen cycle should be started with a dose as low as 20 mcg and increased slowly. The increment in the dose is required because the body starts developing tolerance to the drug. Clen has a long half-life which means the dose should be taken only once in 24 hours generally in the morning before or after breakfast. This ensures that the medicine has an entire day to carry out its functions. The maximum allowed dose is 120 mcg and users should abstain from crossing this line. The metabolism and bodily needs of every person are not same that is why one dosage cycle cannot be fixed for all. One has to eventually fix the perfect cycle for him/herself taking hints as the dose is slowly increased.

In the late 1990s, Volkswagen approached the music label Rykodisc with a proposition. They wanted to take the music of a then-obscure singer-songwriter from the company’s catalog and use it as the soundtrack to an ad for their new Cabriolet.

The artist was Nick Drake and, though I’m not sure how well the car sold, the ad (VW’s first online) became iconic and brought a resurgence of interest for the long-dead musician. It also became a model for how music and advertising could be paired in a way that exposed audiences to new (or obscure) music rather than relying on proven hits and hit makers.

Now, one of the architects of that success, Rykodisc’s former president, George Howard, has partnered with Nathan Hanks, the co-founder and chief revenue officer at online marketing firm ReachLocal, to create a systematic way to pair brands and artists.

The company, Dallas-based Music Audience Exchange (“MAX”) has raised $6 million in new financing led by MATH Venture Partners and KDWC Ventures. Additional investors include G-Bar Ventures and Gregg Latterman, the founder and chief executive of Aware Records.

Their idea is to bring talented local bands to the attention of national and international brands that are looking to target certain demographics that follow artists who haven’t quite broken into the mainstream yet.

While successful musicians can still become pretty freaking rich in the business, it’s getting harder for bands to get the exposure to take their careers from barroom buskers to top-selling artists. The proliferation of tools to make music more accessible and easier to produce and the methods of online distribution have fractured the industry.

In fact, there’s more music that has never been played on Spotify once than there are played songs, according to Hanks (for a taste, check out Forgotify).

Meanwhile, the loss of the CD business and the advent of streaming has hit musicians and record labels in different ways. Executives at startups contend that labels aren’t interested in doing A&R as much as they’re using their marketing skills on artists and bands that have already broken through with some kind of following.

In some cases, artists are foregoing the studio machine altogether, like Chance the Rapper, who has built a successful career on the back of three (amazing) mixtapes.

Chance and musicians like G Eazy have managed to build careers outside the studio system and develop followings — but not all musicians are so lucky.

Indeed, Hanks’ own family of musicians provided an example for the nearly 40-year-old serial entrepreneur of what can go wrong. “I always watched the music industry, wondering why the gatekeepers of the industry worked the way they did.”

That sense, which lingered, that the musicians were missing out on a vital market opportunity crystallized after Hanks launched his own marketing company. “I saw how [internet] search and display [ads] dominated the digital landscape, but brands needed more storytelling capabilities and [they] had no way to reach back and get content,” says Hanks.

Musicians embody the art of storytelling, with rags to riches stories, or tales of perseverance that are tailor-made for the brand experience, he says.

And so, in 2013, after taking ReachLocal public and seeing its acquisition by Gannett, Hanks was ready to start something new. MAX was created the following year.

For Hanks, and his co-founder Howard, MAX sits at the intersection of three major trends. One is the desire among consumers to move away from the basic product pitch while they consume content; the second is the rise of digital music platforms that have eaten into revenues at labels; and the third is the proliferation of publishing tools that have created incredible opportunities to make and distribute music, but have completely overwhelmed fans.

Using similar tools to the ones that Hanks worked on at ReachLocal, MAX can identify more than 200 different demographic categories of fans for any of the 2.4 million musicians that the company tracks across 765 different genres.

Brands like Ford, Twix, Dr. Pepper and others can reach out to the company with a prospective campaign to reach a particular audience (like bitter, 40ish reporters who would like to wallow in their cynical misanthropy). MAX then identifies artists that this particular demographic cares about, and that fit the budgetary bill for how much the brand is willing to spend; then the company tries to match the two together.

Sponsorships typically include commercial exposure in ads, backing a local or national tour and guaranteeing a certain number of rotations for the sponsored song.

The deal is only signed if the artists agree to the terms… And sometimes they don’t. One famous musician actually turned down a product sponsorship orchestrated by MAX because he was a bigger fan of a competing product in the same category. Artists that have benefited from the MAX platform include NEEDTOBREATHE, Leela James, Aaron Watson and the 2017 Grammy Nominee La Maquinaria Norteña.

Sometimes, the pairings are just serendipitous.

“My life is a series of disintermediating steps,” says Howard of his path through the music industry.

Beginning as a musician at Brown University and the founder of Slow River Records (which put out one of the soundtracks of my youth with Vivadixiesubmarinetransmissionplot), then as president of Rykodisc and as a teacher at the Berklee College of Music, Howard sees his trajectory as removing obstacles between musicians and money.

“The fewer things standing between the content creator and the content consumer, the better,” says Howard. “MAX is a coordinating agent,” he continues, “not a middle man. “It’s designed to coordinate and align values.”

Meanwhile, Hanks sees this applying to influencers of all stripes, from movie stars, to YouTube celebrities, to musicians, to actors.

It’s crazy that an influencer can build a following of 5 million on Facebook, but has to pay to pitch them.

“You’ve got the power of the brand to buy that audience… the power of the media company to deliver that audience, and the power of the artist to tell a story to that audience,” Hanks says of his system.

It could be the future and put more money into artists’ pockets. “This is the new era of patronage; where brands get behind artists,” Hanks says.